Hamlet And Laertes Compare And Contrast

Hunter Tiburzi

Mr. Grear

Honors English 12

21 April 2023

Hamlet and Laertes, a Comparison

The poison kills! At the beginning of Hamlet, it is revealed that Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet died, while during the play Laertes’ father, Polonius died. After their paternal figures passed away, there is a voice of someone royal in their ear trying to get them to take revenge. Near the end of the play, both Hamlet and Laertes get killed with a poisoned blade. During the storyline of Hamlet, they both show love for Ophelia. King Claudius treats the boys differently when the story of Hamlet plays out. They plot their revenge for their fathers’ deaths but the speeds at which they execute these plans are much different. The public view both of these young

One of the ways this is shown is by how Claudius treats them. The first example is when Claudius allows Laertes to return to a foreign country to go to school but not Hamlet. “Claudius’s refusal to let Hamlet leave Denmark is particularly pointed because he has just previously granted a similar request by Laertes, the son of his Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, to return to Paris” (Hamlet). In many instances, Claudius treats Hamlet poorly. One instance is where he hires two “friends” of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on him. “That being ofof [sic] so young days brought up with him, And since so neighbored to his youth and humor, That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court” (2.2.11-13). Another example is at the play when he realizes the altered play is about his murder of his brother he storms off and gets into a little yelling match with Hamlet. Claudius treats Laertes like a puppet to do his dirty work. Claudius realizes that Hamlet knows and doesn’t want it to get out so when Laertes returns for his father’s and Ophelia’s funerals Claudius uses guilt and the fact that Hamlet is responsible for his grief to get him to kill Hamlet in a duel. They plot how to do it using a poisoned rapier and Claudius’ backup plan of a poisoned chalice. The sword backfires and ends up killing Claudius, Hamlet, and Laertes and the chalice kills Gertrude and helps kills off Claudius. Claudius treats Hamlet

Laertes is quick compared to Hamlet’s twoish-months plot. Laertes returned to mourn his father and finds out that it was Hamlet who killed him. So when Ophelia kills herself from the grief of her father’s passing it only angers him more. He starts plotting and getting manipulated by Claudius to get rid of Hamlet. “Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech. We'll put the matter to the present push” (5.1.276-277). Their plan includes the boys, Hamlet and Laertes, dueling and Laertes’ rapier being laced with poison, and a poisoned chalice being nearby for Hamlet to drink. This all happens between a few days to a week. A relatively quick time compared to Hamlet's revenge plan. To get back at Claudius for his father’s death. Hamlet planned to act insane and gather enough info to expose Claudius to the people. For this, he had to push Ophelia away to not get distracted. He had only told a few people his plan including some of the castle guards. “…if they see Hamlet acting oddly, not to indicate even by the smallest gesture that they know the reason why” (Hamlet). One part of trying to gain intel was having some visiting actors perform a recreation of Hamlet’s father’s death to see Claudius’ reaction. It worked, Claudius freaked out at the recreation of his crime, but this still wasn’t enough for Hamlet. There was a small hiccup in his plan, Polonius, who he accidentally killed. In the end, both boys technically got